Top pool with a passion...

Three hours were spent  fishing a lovely small river pool at the top end of a stretch of local river. With Chub and a hopefull Barbel in mind, I droppered in some hemp and caster in a couple of swims. I fished caster on the hook with worm as a change bait.

The morning was overcast but warm, and on arrival at about 6:30 am I had the stretch to myself.  A small perch kicked off proceedings followed by a number of perfect clones.  There were fish taking flies off the surface and in the fast shallows up stream of my pitch I thought I saw a brown trout viciously  take some unfortunate from the surface.  In the margins I amused my self by feeding maggots to a small shoal of finger sized perch, of which there were about four or five, their leader distinctive with some white aberration hanging from his mouth.

Fast shallows - were there trout about ?

I fished on and caught a larger Perch from the crease of the flow coming into the head of the pool.  It had me convinced it was a chub, till it surfaced.  I justified the need to weigh it to myself, as It looked like threatening a pound, but the scales said a mere 10oz (I must test them again - not sure how accurate they are with lower weights).  When I dropped him back near the small shoal at my feet it was comical to watch the small perch react to him.  White mouth appeared with the gang cowering behind, the bravado was knocked a bit by the giant in their midst, they hung back before risking another maggot.  Finally white mouth ventured forward, took a maggot signalling normal activity to resume.  I looked away to check the rod tip and when I glanced back the 'big' one was gone, back to the depths I guess. 

                                
Soon after I was joined by a lad that came crashing through the undergrowth behind me. "You just caught a Barbel"? was the greeting.  "No, a Perch"  my reply.  "Are there Barbel in here then "? I lied.  "Yes I always catch them in that peg " he points to where I am sat.   "Oh yeah, what d'you have em on"? I asked.
"Soft boilies.... you can have some if you want "  I smiled to myself and declined the kind offer.
We chatted for a while and I discovered that not only had he caught many Barbel, but at least a 12lber no less, and from this very peg.   Bless him,  he sat there struggling to side hook his 8mm soft hookable onto his size 6 hook.  So I offered to drill some for him to make life easier.  Then it struck me, it's that flippin  Pete from 'A Passion for Angling', he even had the floppy white hat.

It was soon 10 am and time for me to go,  I gave 'Pete'  my spare bait drill and sorted him out some pellets I'd already pre drilled.  Instructing him where I'd baited up, I wished him tight lines and left him to it.


Entomology Corner...

On the way back to the car I managed to photograph this stunning Blue tailed Damsel - A male I believe, following a quick research on google.

 Male  Blue-Tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

I also snapped this "Ladybird" but was then surprised to learn it is in fact a Harlequin Ladybird, an invader to these shores.  First time I've "realised" I've seen one though.

Harlequin Ladybird (H. axyridis succinea )

I'm getting quite into this 'Bug snapping' now, it adds a little extra interest to the session getting a good shot of a new species, and to be honest I'd never really taken much notice of how beautiful some of these insects can be.  The colours and patterns they display are stunning, when you open your eyes. 

A procession of Perch

Another Sunday morning small river session, that began with a rain shower, not that the rain could stop me though. I started by casting a link ledgered worm into a small pool that was heavily overgrown with marginal reeds.

I poked the rod tip through them and waited for the first bite to happen, It didn't take long but disaster stuck when the vicious bite that wrapped the tip round resulted in a broken hook length.

 The Palomar knot had  parted near the swivel.   I must have damaged the line when tying it, creating a weak point that was exposed by the take and resulting strike, one of the drawbacks of a pre stretched line I guess.
I recast and caught my first palm sized Perch of the day, it was the start of a procession of them that meant  I finished up with about 15, the biggest getting on for about 6 oz.

First of many..

The biggest of the bunch

I was hoping for a nice Chub or a larger Perch but they didn't show.  Some of the holes and rafts looked like they would contain a wise old Perch, probably tucked away at the back watching the youngsters foolishly make their mistakes, like lemmings off a cliff.

 I managed to spot a female Banded Demoiselle, but she landed a bit too far away for a nice crisp shot unfortunately.

If not before, I will return in Autumn to see if any larger relatives of this perch population will make a visit to my net !

Summer small river Perch and Chub

I managed to sneak in a couple of hours on a local river this morning for a spot of Chub and Perch fishing.

I arrived 'early-ish'  about 7:30am after stopping on the way to buy a loaf of bread for Chub bait.

Getting to the swim was a challenge in itself as there doesn't seem to have been many anglers down here so far this season.

Across the endless Jungle !

I set up a simple paternoster rig with 2 SSGs on 6lb mainline and a size 4 hook on 12" of 4lb hooklength coming off the mainline 18" above the shot,  fixed by float stops either side of the swivel (rather like a long  helicopter rig).  A nice juicy lob worm, collected from my lawn back in April, was placed on the hook and the rig was swung out adjacent to the nearside vegetation into a small pool on a bend in the river.

Within a minute the tip bounced and pulled down.  I struck but got  'bare hooked'.  The second worm was swung in, with the same results!  Contestant number three was hoisted into position but this time I cut it in half to see if I could get both bait and hook in the mouth of whatever was managing to 'do me' every time. 
Less than a minute later and the tip pulled down, I struck and the rod hooped round as a reasonable fish was hooked.  The chub headed for the nearest bunch of streamer weed but I stopped it snagging me up and forced it to the surface through the waving strands and into the waiting net.

 

I carried on fishing the swim after releasing the fish 30 yards downstream away from the shoal, but only caught small perch.  I saw a large fish grab something from the surface on the opposite side of the pool  but the shoal were now proving more difficult to tempt.   I had one more significant pull on the tip but the strike was met with another bare hook.  Finally, I decided to move on after an hour in this first swim having only given myself limited time to try other spots on the stretch.  It was obvious the fish were getting spooked in the first pool swim by now.   I tried two more areas but only caught one more small perch.

The final swim produces another greedy small Perch

Fishing these small rivers can be a challenge, and fishable swims are usually limited but there are some real surprises lurking in these waters if your brave enough to give it a go.

There's lots of unfishable parts at this time of year

There have been some great pics of Damsel and Dragon flies appearing on some blogs recently , here's my effort a male Calopteryx splendens - Banded Demoiselle.

This third and final swim failed to produce any chub, I think the bright late morning sunlight was forcing them well under cover by now, so I packed up and was back home by 11:00 am, ready for my family duties.  As for them, well,  they were still getting ready for the day ahead!